Book Review: The Magic of Recluce, by L.E. Modesitt Jr.
An aggressively mid 90s fantasy artifact.
Tor Books, 1991, 440 pages
Young Lerris is dissatisfied with his life and trade, and yearns to find a place in the world better suited to his skills and temperament. But in Recluce a change in circumstances means taking one of two options: permanent exile from Recluce or braving the dangergeld, a complex, rule-laden wanderjahr in the lands beyond Recluce, with the aim of learning how the world works and what his place in it might be. Many do not survive. Lerris chooses the dangergeld.
When Lerris is sent into intensive training for his quest, it soon becomes clear that he has a natural talent for magic. And he will need magic in the lands beyond, where the power of the Chaos Wizards reigns unchecked. Though it goes against all of his instincts, Lerris must learn to use his powers in an orderly way before his wanderjahr, or fall prey to Chaos.
Once upon a time, the term "Extruded Fantasy Product" was coined. It apparently originated in the old days of the Internet, but referred to long-running trope-filled series of a generally formulaic and recognizable style. Ye Olde Fantasy Inns in Not-Europe Fantasylandia, Dark Lords and Farmboys of Destiny, schools of magic out of D&D's Appendix N... It's been applied, not always fairly, to pretty much any big fantasy series, but most notably Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series.
Robert Jordan, of course, remains massively popular, yet I bounced after reading the first book because it was such a tepidly-written pastiche fantasy, and that's how I felt about The Magic of Recluce, which likewise clearly has a large following because it's up to over 20 books now.
No disrespect to L.E. Modesitt, Jr., who's an enormously prolific author who's still churning out books in his 80s, but this was his first book for me, and probably will be my last. I didn't hate it; I didn't even dislike it, it was just very "mid" as the kids say nowadays.
Lerris is from a small island nation called Recluce, which for reasons that don't become clear until later, is isolated, powerful, and regarded with suspicious by its neighbors, even though they are utterly peaceful and never make war on anyone. Recluce has a tradition of forcing its misfits into exile on what's called a "dangergeld," a sort of walkabout where they travel the world, learn things, and can eventually return if they learn whatever lessons they are supposed to learn.
Lerris is such a misfit; he's not a bad kid, he isn't rebellious, he doesn't do anything wrong at all! He's just... bored. (The word "boring" is used almost every page in the first few chapters.) He is not satisfied with his life as the son of a master woodworker and his woodworking is only middling, so despite his parents being highly-regarded citizens of Recluce, even Lerris gets sent out to Dangergeld.
He gets trained with a small group of misfits like him (Recluce makes sure everyone is adequately prepared for their adventure, they don't just kick them out at the border), and then goes forth to find himself.
This is very much a bildungsroman, and also a Farmboy of Destiny story (technically, Woodworker of Destiny). Lerris learns that he is a budding wizard and eventually heads down the road towards become an Ordermaster.
The worldbuilding and magic system is creative enough, though no more creative than what you'd find in your average variant D&D setting. It's a two-point morality system, with Order and Chaos being the two types of magic. Order lets you fix and strengthen things, Chaos lets you destroy things, and this interpreted broadly. They don't correspond precisely to "Good" and "Evil," as Order can be used for bad purposes and Chaos for good purposes, but in practice the path of Order is very hard and requires strict self discipline, while the path of Chaos seems to inevitably lead to power-mongering and destruction. There are also "Gray" wizards who sort of straddle the line, but they are even rarer than Chaos and Order masters.
Lerris spends years tooling around becoming an Order master, manfully resisting the temptations of all the hot chicks who throw themselves at him. (A lot of reviewers object to the fact that so many female characters are described in terms of their attractiveness. This novel is narrated from the point of view of a young dude - of course a lady's assets are going to be the first thing he notices, he's a wizard, not a monk!) Eventually he has his big showdown with a Chaos master, gets the girl, and is set up for the next umpteen volumes of adventure.
It was okay. It was just okay. It was very typical of pulp and Tolkien-influenced fantasy published in the 90s, but at no point was I particularly interested in finding out what happened next, I was just waiting for the story to end. Sorry, this series is a pass for me.
My complete list of book reviews.
Tor Books, 1991, 440 pages
Young Lerris is dissatisfied with his life and trade, and yearns to find a place in the world better suited to his skills and temperament. But in Recluce a change in circumstances means taking one of two options: permanent exile from Recluce or braving the dangergeld, a complex, rule-laden wanderjahr in the lands beyond Recluce, with the aim of learning how the world works and what his place in it might be. Many do not survive. Lerris chooses the dangergeld.
When Lerris is sent into intensive training for his quest, it soon becomes clear that he has a natural talent for magic. And he will need magic in the lands beyond, where the power of the Chaos Wizards reigns unchecked. Though it goes against all of his instincts, Lerris must learn to use his powers in an orderly way before his wanderjahr, or fall prey to Chaos.
Once upon a time, the term "Extruded Fantasy Product" was coined. It apparently originated in the old days of the Internet, but referred to long-running trope-filled series of a generally formulaic and recognizable style. Ye Olde Fantasy Inns in Not-Europe Fantasylandia, Dark Lords and Farmboys of Destiny, schools of magic out of D&D's Appendix N... It's been applied, not always fairly, to pretty much any big fantasy series, but most notably Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series.
Robert Jordan, of course, remains massively popular, yet I bounced after reading the first book because it was such a tepidly-written pastiche fantasy, and that's how I felt about The Magic of Recluce, which likewise clearly has a large following because it's up to over 20 books now.
No disrespect to L.E. Modesitt, Jr., who's an enormously prolific author who's still churning out books in his 80s, but this was his first book for me, and probably will be my last. I didn't hate it; I didn't even dislike it, it was just very "mid" as the kids say nowadays.
Lerris is from a small island nation called Recluce, which for reasons that don't become clear until later, is isolated, powerful, and regarded with suspicious by its neighbors, even though they are utterly peaceful and never make war on anyone. Recluce has a tradition of forcing its misfits into exile on what's called a "dangergeld," a sort of walkabout where they travel the world, learn things, and can eventually return if they learn whatever lessons they are supposed to learn.
Lerris is such a misfit; he's not a bad kid, he isn't rebellious, he doesn't do anything wrong at all! He's just... bored. (The word "boring" is used almost every page in the first few chapters.) He is not satisfied with his life as the son of a master woodworker and his woodworking is only middling, so despite his parents being highly-regarded citizens of Recluce, even Lerris gets sent out to Dangergeld.
He gets trained with a small group of misfits like him (Recluce makes sure everyone is adequately prepared for their adventure, they don't just kick them out at the border), and then goes forth to find himself.
This is very much a bildungsroman, and also a Farmboy of Destiny story (technically, Woodworker of Destiny). Lerris learns that he is a budding wizard and eventually heads down the road towards become an Ordermaster.
The worldbuilding and magic system is creative enough, though no more creative than what you'd find in your average variant D&D setting. It's a two-point morality system, with Order and Chaos being the two types of magic. Order lets you fix and strengthen things, Chaos lets you destroy things, and this interpreted broadly. They don't correspond precisely to "Good" and "Evil," as Order can be used for bad purposes and Chaos for good purposes, but in practice the path of Order is very hard and requires strict self discipline, while the path of Chaos seems to inevitably lead to power-mongering and destruction. There are also "Gray" wizards who sort of straddle the line, but they are even rarer than Chaos and Order masters.
Lerris spends years tooling around becoming an Order master, manfully resisting the temptations of all the hot chicks who throw themselves at him. (A lot of reviewers object to the fact that so many female characters are described in terms of their attractiveness. This novel is narrated from the point of view of a young dude - of course a lady's assets are going to be the first thing he notices, he's a wizard, not a monk!) Eventually he has his big showdown with a Chaos master, gets the girl, and is set up for the next umpteen volumes of adventure.
It was okay. It was just okay. It was very typical of pulp and Tolkien-influenced fantasy published in the 90s, but at no point was I particularly interested in finding out what happened next, I was just waiting for the story to end. Sorry, this series is a pass for me.
My complete list of book reviews.